Astro HQ’s Luna Display Blows Past Kickstarter Goal in Hours

AstroPad Studio maker Astro HQ launched a Kickstarter for their new Luna Display on Tuesday and within hours it blew past its funding goal several times over. The Luna Display, which lets you turn your iPad into a second display for your Mac, had a US$30,000 funding goal and got pledges totalling over $112,000 in a matter of hours.

The Luna Display is a dongle that connects to your Mac via USB-C or Mini DisplayPort and turns your iPad into a wireless second display. Instead of using software to trick your Mac into seeing the iPad as a second display, it acts as a wireless video connection so you can take advantage of your computer’s graphics acceleration.

The product Kickstarter page says,

Luna Display acts as a complete extension to your Mac, allowing you to use it directly from your iPad with full support for external keyboards, Apple Pencil, and touch interactions. It literally turns your Mac into a touchable device, allowing pinching, panning and tapping…making it much more than just a second screen.

The $59 pledge level gets you a Luna Display when it ships. You get to choose USB-C or Mini DisplayPort. Astro HQ expects it’ll ship in May 2018.

Astro HQ has done pretty well with their AstroPad apps that turn your iPad into a pressure sensitive graphics tablet for your Mac, so odds are good they’ll come through with the Luna Display—especially since they didn’t have any trouble hitting their Kickstarter funding goal before the October 19th deadline.

Luna Display looks pretty intriguing because it’ll let me use my iPad as a true second display with my MacBook Pro when I’m traveling. Using my iPad as a remote display for my Mac when I’m kicked back on the couch sounds awesome, too.